News

April 25, 2016

Bowie ‘Brixton Pounds’ selling four times above face value

These £10 banknotes featuring the late David Bowie are selling for more than four times their face value on eBay.

Some Brixton Pound banknotes – a form of “complementary” paper currency that circulates in Brixton and supports the local economy – are being sold on eBay for more than four times their face value.

The notes, which feature the late David Bowie, have a face value of £10 and can only be spent in certain Brixton shops and restaurants. Despite being listed on brixtonpound.org for face value plus shipping, about a dozen people have paid £40 or more in a bid to acquire the notes via eBay. One listing, found here, has a price of more than $80 Cdn.

Max Wakefield, Brixton Pound project manager, told the Financial Times: “In terms of it being a substantial ruse, it would require some people to be not particularly observant.”

The currency was launched in 2009 as a way to encourage Brixton residents to support local business. Earlier this month, a vending machine (shown below in a tweet by London-based author Brett Scott) was installed to dispense the banknotes in Brixton. More than £1-million worth of Brixton Pounds have been issued since they first entered circulation.

The petition, found here at change.org, states Bowie’s music has “sound-tracked important events in the lives of many of us,” adding his “visual art and sense of character brought a new combination of music, performance and imagery into mainstream culture.”